I can't seem to leave this one alone (5.20)
Can anyone shed some light on why it was important that Crowley had to have the boys separated? Surely if his end game is to get Brady to confess the whereabouts of Pestilence then 2 Winchesters are better than one? I mean, I know why it was important for us,to have them separated (to show Sam's anger, Dean having to trust Sam, Sam's talk to Bobby etc.) But what was Crowley's motivation I wonder. (I suspect I missed it maybe, or it was never made clear. I mean I don't believe it's just because Crowley "doesn't like him" etc.) If he examined his plan he would have seen that he was just leading Dean to his potential death, and thus not achieving his goal.
I have in fact been musing on an alternative scenario which possibly may have made more sense and still achieved the writer's goal of showing us the (and I use the word lightly here) character developments they wanted to show us.
What if it had been Sam that went with Crowley and not Dean? We would have had the whole trust issue played out right there. Dean having to trust Sam in going off with the demon. Also, for Crowley it would have made more sense to the select Sam anyway. Especially if he knew the connection between Brady and Sam. He could have be planning to use Sam's anger to get Brady to talk. (I haven't figured out why he wouldn't want Dean as well yet. But then I can't figure out why he didn't want Sam either...).
Then we could have had a scene with Brady and Sam that might have established their past relationship more clearly. In fact the reveal could have been quite powerful and here we really could have seen Sam really let loose and pull back at the last minute realising he needed Brady to talk. Thus we see that Sam CAN control his anger when he needs to. On his own.
We then would have had Sam come down with a beaten up Brady (with a possibly a smug "my plan worked" and impressed "wow, Sam's a tough SOB" Crowley) instead of Brady beating up Dean and Dean escaping....um.... somehow (not really sure how he managed that actually). Also means we wouldn't have had to suffer poor Dean looking "beaten" - both physically and mentally.
Then Crowley wants Sam to make him talk right there but instead Sam wants to take him back to Dean so they can work on him TOGETHER. Yay... brother moment. And Dean would still have seen that Sam could be trusted and keep control.
Fanciful thinking I know. And would still leave lots of holes. It would mean Sam doesn't get a chance to talk to Bobby about his cunning plan for instance, but I'm sure they could have squeezed that in somehow...
Also, at the end, I think I might liked to have seen Sam take the upper hand by NOT killing Brady. Leaving Brady to a worse fate might have been more satisfying (in the revenge stakes) and we would have seen a different kind of strength in Sam. Revenge killing just seemed a bit of a cop out. It would have also been a nice reminder of the Sam we used to have... one where killing didn't come so easily. And Dean could have been equally proud of Sam's restraint. But I know. He's changed and it's probably important for the upcoming episode that he's this kind of bad ass.
Ok. I'll leave this alone now. Time to move on. I was making plans with my mum for my up coming trip to Sydney. So I'm getting all excited about that now.... \o/.